Laundry basins are common fixtures in households. These freestanding tubs are commonly found in laundry rooms due their use in conjunction with automatic laundry machines and the like. Such basins provide a means for receiving water drained from laundry machines, and often also provide a faucet for selective water flow. The presence of such basins in laundry rooms or other out-of-the-way locations and their relatively large size means that they are often utilized for large, messy cleaning tasks unsuitable for smaller sinks around a house.
One (1) problem associated with these tubs is the fact that they are often in use while a user is not present. Use with automatic laundry machines results in large amounts of water deposited in the basin, often with no one present. Furthermore, their use in particularly dirty and time-consuming tasks means that such basins are often subject to large amounts of dirt and debris over a period of time. The failure of such basins to drain is particularly problematic due to the large volumes of water involved and the fact that their remote and automatic usage means that an overflow of water may go undetected for a substantial amount of time.
Various attempts have been made to provide a drainage means to water basin structures. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 495,480, issued in the name of Giles, describes an overflow assembly for bath or laundry tubs which provides an alternate piping arrangement to ensure proper drainage of water.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,780,241, issued in the name of Mustee, describes a waste and storage water control system for a laundry tub which provides a means for separate draining of an incoming water line and faucet water or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,675, issued in the name of Van Manen et al., describes an interior overflow channel for a sink.
Additionally, ornamental designs for a water basin drain assembly exist, particularly U.S. Pat. Nos. D 175,850 and D 368,514. However, none of these designs are similar to the present invention.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are not easily adapted to freestanding laundry type basins. Also, many such devices are not adapted for handling debris or the like. Furthermore, many such devices occupy substantial amounts of space within the structure. In addition, many such devices are not easily accessible or replaceable. Accordingly, there exists a need for a laundry basin overflow assembly without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.